Le Noise is Le Best Neil Young album in a Long,Long Time

Goosebumps. On the very first listen.  Songs like Love and War, Hitchhiker, Angry World.  Joy. Bliss. Heaven and Noise. His best since Harvest Moon......Maybe even since Harvest.

When I come down..I will review it.  In the meantime, stop what you are doing and go and get it. Go find Daniel Lanois and give him a hug.

Un-Aerosmith Idle

Finally...a rant shows up, bumps me as it walks by, smelling like a mixture of Coke and a new fragrance called "PitchyDawg" and taunts me to push it around. First, let me show you this picture:

Steven Tyler has joined the cast of American Idol.  Let that sink in for a minute.

The rumors were true. One of the toxic twins....Lead singer of Aerosmith...well, probably Former lead singer of Aerosmith now...has joined the cast of this debacle of a show as a judge.

This show, that has dumbed down an American music listening audience into moronic,mediocrity slumming consumers of shit rate entertainment...fucking glorified karaoke...and made the back yard church stars who sing this shit famous long enough to get a 2nd tier role in an off Broadway musical or a tour one step below fucking Disney on Ice.

Steven Tyler joined this show, putting away 30 plus years of being in the same great band, nullifying the time ,sweat and the everlasting stamp on rock history with at least 4 classic albums and 6 more very good ones....quite possibly ruining any bit of love, trust and brotherhood left between he and Joe Perry....after he fell off a fucking stage and decided to recuperate for a year while conjuring up plans to write an autobiography, do a solo album.....and alienate the rest of Aerosmith, making them wait on his shifty decision to come back for another tour.......THEN HE DECIDES TO DO THIS??????????

I just don't get it. Does he need the scratch? Fuck no. Cmon...how much does one man really need?? Does he really think this fading show, which even the bocephuses in the fly- over states have stopped watching , NEEDS HIM?   What can he bring to it????? YOU CANT MAKE MUSICIANS OUT OF PEOPLE WITH LITTLE OR NO TALENT!! YOU EITHER HAVE IT OR YOU DON'T.  WHY ARE MILLIONS of PEOPLE SO EASILY ENTERTAINED?????   I BLAME YOU FOR THIS. ALL OF YOU.!!!!!! EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE FUCKING FAMOUS NOW. ITS BECAUSE OF YOU REALITY TV WATCHING JABBA THE HUTS ADDICTED TO BIG GULPS AND RINGTONES AND DANCING INSTEAD OF WALKING AND COVERS OF COVER SONGS PERFORMED BY COLORFULLY DRESSED ACTORS ON NETWORK TV AND BUYING DISPOSABLE SHIT COVERED SINGLES FROM APPLE AND READING STAR MAGAZINE ON YOUR IPADS WHILE DANCING FROM TACO BELL TO TARGET!!!!!

GO BACK TO YOUR CHURCH CHOIRS
GO BACK TO YOUR MALL TOURS
GO BACK TO YOUR FIST PUMPING
GO BACK TO YOUR INCESSANT TEXTING ABOUT NOTHING
GO BACK TO BELIEVING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND TIN EARED CO WORKERS WHO BELIEVE IN YOUR BARGAIN BASEMENT OFF KEY SUMMER CAMP ASSEMBLY OF A VOICE...

GO DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT WITH YOUR LIVES ...STOP LINING UP FOR THESE AUDITIONS LIKE OVER EMPHASIZED VOCAL GYMNASTS, STOP FEEDING  THE FAT and DROOLING LEMMINGS AND INFLUENCING PEOPLE LIKE .....

Steven Tyler.   Way to go Steven.  You have LESS THAN ZERO credibility now.

Band of Joy on Jimmy Fallon

The Golden God does Raising Sand Part II. Band of Joy is a pack of legendary Nashville session players with Percy out in front...looking a little salt and pepper and a lot less golden, but I love it anyway. He does what he wants nowadays....leaving Jimmy Page with nothing left to do but release expensive coffee table books and roll in more royalties.
There's a bit of mysticism/folk with reverb on pretty much everything on the Band of Joy album. I keep waiting to hear Alison Krauss and her smooth, soothy siren of a voice on every track but it never shows up. This track is as loud as it gets by the way, so all of you Zep fan boys and girls who chose the Battle of Evermore as your favorite track will love this album. It's for adults who like to sit around and roll joints on Sunday mornings and need a soundtrack for reading the Times or baking hash brownies. But I love it anyway.

OK Go -This Too Shall Pass Video

Thanks to Bob Lefsetz, for shining a light on this video from that crazy, innovative band OK Go. This band got a lot of attention with their video for Here it Goes Again..the one where they do a wacky dance while on a treadmill? Yes you and millions of others have seen it too.
With each and every video since, they have tried to out do themselves. I applaud their efforts,  At least they bring something new, daring, freakishly conceptual and fun to the music video.

I somehow missed this version of the video for This Too Shall Pass. With over 16 million views on You Tube, it looks like a hit....video. I like the song a lot, catchy, great chorus, singable.....but the video might be the coolest thing I've ever seen. I will let it speak for itself....

New Neil Young Video- "Hitchhiker" !

Is there anyone kicking more ass as a senior citizen than Neil Young?

White House Feedback

No this has not turned into a political blog. Unless you want to talk about putting Paul McCartney on a postage stamp or outlawing hip hop ring tones. No, the title to this post refers to the video below.  Dave Grohl  doing his best dirty lookin' longhaired Paul McCartney with a performance of Band On the Run at the White House. This is from the recent PBS Special  that nobody saw but everybody talked about.(I posted the vid of Jack White doing Mother Nature's Son a few weeks back). Lets hope for a DVD release. The distortion that kicks out the middle jam around 2 minutes in may have knocked a few of the First Lady's hairs out of place. It may have blown a fuse in the press room, or caused a jolt to knock out a few senatorial pacemakers who knows.  I can't think of any other time when something this loud was played at the WH. 

Bang Camaro Update

I am happy to link to an explanation/article posted on Bang Camaro's website which is a full disclosure from the band's co-founder and guitarist Alex Necochea as to the past present and future of the band.

I was a member of the band's choir on their last American tour in the spring of 2009(above, far left). It is a time in my life that I hold dear. When I think back to traversing across the country in a white extended van with 12 other guys....When I close my eyes and can relive the putrid medicinal smell of the entrance to another truck stop Subway, when I see smoke coming from a burning wheel of a small white trailer, when I see a triple chinned woman peeing in a Big Gulp cup while driving at around 80 miles an hour... my black heart warms up to a pale blue. Life was hard on the road and I loved every minute of it.  I am honored to have been a part of it.

Here is the link:      http://bangcamaro.com/wp02/?p=813

All Of My Best VMA Tweets Right Here

I'd like to give Justin Bieber a swirlie until the bubbles stop.

I don't know who the fuck Nikki Minaj is, but she must have all custom made toilets in her house. You could fit several swing sets into her back yard. Those are massive cheeks...makes J Lo look like a piker.

Why is Will-I'm Not dressed like a tar baby?

Commercial for Vagisil right after Shaq stuffs a ball through a hoop.

Kesha is wearing a garbage bag..but it failed to reach all the way to her head. I wonder if she'll leave the awards with wads of gum and tampon wrappers stuck to her.

The whole concept of hip hop as a live performance is ridiculous. Eminem with a full orchestra??? Does that help his drama get sold better? So you had a pill problem, who gives a shit. Keith Richards never sang about his "recovery". He didn't need to. All hip hop is false drama, with jewelry. On teef.

Ellen Degenital-less definitely has an extensive strap-on collection.

Lady Gaga does ask, and does tell.

Best Rock Video...in the tradition of best rock videos, joining Guns and Roses, Nirvana and now 30 seconds to mars.............release the crickets.

I'm watching this Bieber kid...this semi gloss caricature of a human being....lets think back to when we were thirteen....this kid would have been skinned alive on his way to school, we were new teens listening to AC DC and Led Zeppelin..not practicing our disney boy band dance moves and grooming our rat tails ....I'm sure even the girls who had teen idols back then would have thought he was a pussy. Not worthy of a name etched on a textbook cover(right next to Duran Duran).. I've had it. I want all children beTWEEN the ages of 11 and 15 to be quarantined on an island not yet featured on a reality show and forcibly caned if they pick up any smartphone, ipod or X box. I want them to be forced to read nothing but philosophy, poetry, Philip K. Dick, Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung, Please Kill Me, The Dirt, Geek Love and the Dharma Bums. Lock up your tweens. They're tearing us the fuck apart.

Florence and the Machine-great voice...but Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks and Beth Orton already did it. She's wearing slightly longer curtains. Shit why does everyone need so many fucking DANCERS? WHY IS AMERICA DANCE CRAZY? WHY ARE YOU MOVING. SIT FUCKING STILL.

GLAA GGAA RAHH RAHH GLEE GLUMM GLAMMM GODDDDDDDDDDD DAMMMNNN MAAKKKEEEE ITTTT STOPPPPPPP.

oh no not another painfully weak and off key song from taylor swift. who signed this trailer park 7th place karaoke performer? Show yourself. Then show yourself out. I found myself crossing my bruised fingers(from punching the wall)and praying for autotune. Her hair got that curly from the static of wrong notes.

Drake ...is Canadian...whats with the ebonics? These rhymes are not poetry, more like verbal diarrhea. Soul-less skankness could use a good douching. All repetitive rhythm , no soul. Rappers wave their hands because they have no instruments.

All these collaborations in pop hip hop reek of weakness. Not one part can stand on their own.. so patch in some aggressive rapper bling blang blung over a somber piano track and a sweetly sung chorus phoned in by a mall punk with cherry kool aid hair and you got a hit tailor made for the mediocre mass of manic mall rats racing around in aimless idoltry.


I'm done. Got my punches in. Gonna dream of clean things. Good things. Anything but Kanye. Better Days of the music behind this. 'gnight.

Why am I Blooging About the MTV VMAs?

Because I've never been in a physical fight in my life...and this will feel like taking a crowbar to someone's skull(in written form, of course..I'm really a deeply faithful follower of the Gandhi principles)

Circle of Fits rates a lot of things in the music realm on a shit meter..and the VMAs fills the steamy summer festival port a potty to the seat every time.

I can't wait.

Freedom is Everywhere

I Will Never Forget

Mannish Boy/ Masculine Playlist

Something made me feel like a masculinity challenged piece of shit recently...stopped me in my tracks, head tilted like a dog..silent.. and I'm kind of incensed about it. There is a huge part of me that wants to shout into my own ear..something like "Suck it Up, Dude" or "Suck It Up, Pansy". Either one would get a response, now I guess......Yesterday as I was shopping for a tool belt(I lost mine while running shirtless into a burning building to save three children and a parakeet on my way back from marathon training) in Home Depot. I'm often at Home Depot. I like to hang out there and high five anyone who walks by in a flannel shirt while holding a large adjustable impact wrench.

.But anyway....Mannish Boy(the muzak version) was playing through the store's speakers and it got me thinking about putting a playlist together of all the songs with the word "Man" or "Men" in the title. I went home, sat on the couch in my underwear and wrote down this list while on my sixth set of curls with a 40 pound dumbell......

1. Mannish Boy
2.) Man on a Silver Mountain
3.) Maneater
4) Magic Man
5) Rocket Man
6) Madman Across the Water
7) One Inch Man
8) Walk Like a Man
9) Dude Looks Like a Lady
10) Spoonman
11) Simple Man
12) Astro Man
13) Iron Man
14) Piano Man
15) Guitar Man
16) Man in a Box
17) Betterman
18) Egg Man
19) Candy Man
20) Son of a Preacher Man
21) Mr. Tambourine Man
22) The Man Who Sold The World
23) Man in the Mirror
24) Man in the Moon
25) I'm a Man
26) Brown Eyed Handsome Man
27) Man in the Long Black Coat
28) Solitary Man
29) Nowhere Man
30) Man on a Corner
31) Old Man
32) Stringman
33) Lucky Man
34) Young Man Blues
35) Ballad of a Thin Man
36) Fat Man
37) Sickman
38) 21st Century Schizoid Man
39) Ramblin Man
40) Ramblin Gamblin Man
41) Sharp Dressed Man
42) Macho Man
43) Real Men
44) Ape Man
45) Working Man
46) Drowning Man
47) Super Man
48) Poetry Man
49) Hurdy Gurdy Man
50) New World Man
51) Secret Agent Man
52) Stand By Your Man
53) Listen to What the Man Said
54) Dead Mans Curve
55) Rubberband Man
56) Watch That Man
57) Handy Man
58) Don't Pay the Ferryman
59) Soul Man
60) Old Man River
61) Its Raining Men
62) Rastaman Vibration
63) An Innocent Man
64) California Man
65) Enter Sandman
66) Street Fighting Man
67) Ice Cream Man
68) Men of Good Fortune
69) Monkey Man
70) Baby You're a Rich Man
71) Man In Black
72) Here Comes Your Man
73) Cinderella Man
74) Hey Man Nice Shot
75) Crackerman
76) King Contrary Man
77) My Old Man
78) Demolition Man
79) Back Door Man
80) Man of Constant Sorrow
81) The Old Man Down the Road
82) Hoochie Coochie Man
83) Star Man
84) Boogie Man
85) Big Boss Man
86) Well Respected Man
87) Walk Like a Man
88) When A Man Loves a Woman
89) Its a Man's Man's Man's World
90) Whatta Man

Man up and let me know if I missed any...

Send Me Suggestions for Rants

All of the sudden, I have almost triple the followers that I used to have just one short month ago. This is due to the press picking up on a Philadelphia(where I live) based story that featured several bloggers(I was one) and their reactions to the City's plan to "tax" those who make money from their blogs(errr, businesses).

Thanks to the groovy people at Blogger(my blog platform) as well. They made Circle of Fits a blog of note for the last week in August. I have had more comments than ever..which creates conversations here and elsewhere...which is the real reason I started Circle of Fits in 2008.

I hope to get to know a great deal of you, see what you're made of and check out your blogs...it will take time as I'm very busy criticizing everything that's right and wrong with music today....yes...this is mainly a music blog....but not just any music blog that micro-hypes super obscure bands you've never heard of (I'm not indie enough), or bombards you with trivial music news(there are only 7 million blogs that already do that, no thanks)......No, I like to verbally eviscerate, poke fun, give overbearing props, and lace most everything in my Circle of Fits elixir with SARCASM.

I'm not one of the "those who cannot do, teach" dudes either. I've been a semi pro to pro rock singer in various bands for over 20 years. Yet, not one with Lead Singer Disease, or one who ever demanded his own tour bus( for road head privacy) or private accommodations (ever sleep with 8 other band members in one hotel room? I have.). I'm pretty humble, and ripe with self deprecation. So I'd like to believe in/promote my own slogan, which is "I only do two things very well...sing and complain."

That brings me to one of my favorite things to do on this blog......RANT.  RANT about something ridiculous, unfair, juvenile, heinously overrated, and targeted to the most common denominators of the general listening public.   It is usually about music..especially processed pop from vapid tweens and Hip Hop(the #2 cause of the downfall of society in the last 15 years..right behind reality television). I'm good at it, it makes people leave and never come back sometimes, but most of all it makes everyone think. or call the proper authorities...you choose.

SOOOO...I'd like to experiment a little with my new "followers". Are you following because you like? Or are you following for a link?  We'll see. I'd like you to send ME in your suggestions for a good (music/pop culture) rant RANT that I could expand upon and put my personal 2-99 cents worth of super salty opinion into. Please do not be shy....nothing will be censored, nothing will be tame......  If I like your rant, I will link to you/follow your blog.  If I don't, its OK, they can't all be winners...all bloggers must know this.    The winner gets the RANT expanded upon and here and a bunch of praise/link love for originality and bite.

Thanks for playing. Thanks for reading. Really, thanks for taking the time out to find this place.  And thanks for the conversation.!

Let the RANT suggestions begin!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:  This piece of poisonous human waste was denied parole again.  Sorry, but I have better things to say about Osama Bin Laden than this guy. Osama doesn't have a double chin(he's so gaunt and probably on dialysis in a Dank Afghani tunnel somewhere), and he's never read the highly over-rated "The Catcher in the Rye".

The Bad:  Apparently the entire country is swept up in Glee fever.

 Journalists keep incessantly writing about it, The Emmys took way too much note of it, its on the cover of Rolling Stone, half of the cast (name ONE member) are in talks for their own reality shows..,etc.,etc. Meanwhile, I've yet to meet ANYONE who watches it besides well- kempt men who own flower shops, people who always pick a Journey song at Karaoke and understudies for the lead male cheerleader at any Division One school.

The Ugly: No Joke. This is the cover for the new Weezer Album. It's called Hurley.  No offense to actor Jorge Garcia(who played the character Hurley on ABC's religious drama Lost), but he ain't makin' my nipples hard.

I think I'll buy some Dharma Initiative beers on Ebay for 600 bucks a six pack before I'll believe that Jorge inspired this album in any way.

Come on Feel "Le Noise"

This from the Los Angeles Times:

 Neil Young to put 'Le Noise' out

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Los Angeles - — Nearly every decade since Neil Young launched a solo career in 1968, the Canadian rocker has put out a watershed album with which he's upped the ante for himself. In 1969, it was his sophomore effort, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." In 1979, punk rock was powerfully on his mind in "Rust Never Sleeps," while 1989 brought "Freedom."

"Silver & Gold," released in 2000, didn't quite hit the same level of accomplishment, but with "Le Noise," to be released Sept. 28, Young's peaking in yet another decade. The title is a wink to his collaborator, musician-producer Daniel Lanois, who premiered the album last week at his home here. Listeners packed into the living room of the mansion to hear it on a first-class sound system, in the dark.

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"Le Noise" was made predominantly with Young and a guitar. His hollow-body Gretsch electric slashes and burns for most of the tracks; a couple are built around acoustic instruments. Both are amplified by Lanois' looped vocals and guitar bass notes enhanced with electronics.

The eight songs travel a path from the electrified reverie of "Walk With Me," through the nakedly autobiographical "Love and War" and into the acoustic-guitar-driven "Peaceful Valley."
The recent losses of two close friends certainly had to figure in the new material, which Lanois said they crafted together "over four full moons."

Lanois said the project started out as an all-acoustic album, but he began prodding Young to get at what was in his heart. "He has the ability to really reach down deep inside," Lanois said during a break before the album was played a second time, accompanied by gritty film footage of Young singing.

Young's manager, Elliot Roberts, said "Le Noise" will be released in a variety of formats, in keeping with Young's ongoing exploration and exploitation of new technology.
Young and his record label have been digging through the vaults for material for his huge "Archives" multiyear boxed-set project - Vol. 2 is due in 2012, Roberts said.


Daniel Lanois is a master of using the natural acoustics and architecture of "rooms" to bring out the beauty of the bare bones approach he has used to record with Peter Gabriel, U2 and Bob Dylan.  Yeah, you've heard of those guys , but check out his own work on incredible albums like Acadie(1989) and The Beauty of Wynona(1993) (my personal favs).


And now he sprinkles his faerie dust on Neil Young with this upcoming release...on of my most anticipated releases for 2010.  Neil is no stranger to recording with just he and his guitar...a highlight, believe it or not, would be his MTV Unplugged album from 1993 and of course a revamped- for- his Archives re-release(2007) of the famous Massey Hall show from 1971. But this is a perfect combination...2 masters obsessed with getting the perfect sound to match the song.   I cannot wait.